Push 2 WITH Octatrack or Digitakt

Elektron Gear
#1

Hi everyone,

I already read a lot in this forum and now registered as there seem to be nice people around. And because I have a question. I don’t have any Elektron gear yet but I’m very interested in almost every device :slight_smile:
I was especially thinking about the Octatrack or the Digitakt but I’m not sure if it will add something to my setup and they are worth the money for me (which is quite a lot for me).
I already have a Push2 and Live Suite and I can already work very well with that. Especially since Live 9.7 and the ability to sample only with Push. Further I’m using the possibilities of M4L(e.g. LFOs, Granulator) and I’m using Reaktor (Blocks). I have a Minitaur, a Tanzbär Lite, a Sherman Filterbank and a brand-new OP-1. With Komplete Ultimate I’m very well equipped on the software side, too. For multichannel sound installations I’m regularly working with pure Max/Msp.
I’m sampling a lot, my style is really close to traditional musique concrete. I’m using a lot of field recodings and I’m mangling them, combine them with instruments. I tend to keep the original sound of the recordings in the results. Even though I made an electronic beat from raindrops you will still hear them. I use the Push’s sequencing capabilities a lot especially with Simpler, which is a great tool for me. Results vary from Techno Tracks to Soundscapes to works with classical musicians (Neue Musik). I’m also doing that professionally e.g. right now a big project is coming up where I’ll do sounddesign and compose music for a contemporary dance piece. So yes, I’m doing live performances, too. But never had a problem to integrate a notebook and with Push I can already do most things in a show without touching my mouse. That’s why I hesitate. Both OT and DT seem to be able to do interesting things in regard to my workflow and style and needs (OT even more). And even though I was already very happy with the Push2/Simpler sampling, starting to use the OP-1 opened up even more things and I enjoy that a lot. So why not hope for the same effect with OT or DT? But on the other hand they might just do things that I already do with Ableton and Simpler? I’m quite sure I will never get completely rid of my notebook in live performances anyway (e.g. running a weird Max/Msp patch). But on the other hand something like the crossfader and some more (FX) knobs might be nice…
As you can see I’m very undecided and unfortunately I can’t find anybody in my area who has an OT or DT and trying them in the store was great but not a good workflow test.
Soooo, finally there’s the “one” question: are there people using OT or DT along with Ableton and/or Push2 (Simpler)? Does it add something for you? Or would you in my case recommend to spend some leftover money for the analogfour :wink: ?

Thank you very much!

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Digi+Octa combo?
#2

I’m using push 2, suite 9, with (amongst others) the DT and the A4.

I was unsure if the push would be made redundant, however I just found that my workflow became more interesting.

The more ways to create, the less stagnant I became with my producing and sound design.

The sampling on the DT is different to simpler, which means I end up using both for different jobs.

I’ve never touched a OT, so can’t comment. Although if you’re using ableton, and getting the DT perhaps the a4 would be a nicer compliment to your set up. It’s a sound designers dream.

Botrom line is that you’ll probably find yourself working in new ways, which can’t ever be a bad thing.

I’m not sure if that is helpful, however I have 500 Elektranuts text messages to use up this month so thought I’d use one here…

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#3

I feel that OB is going to make the DT more harmonious with Ableton. It’s just so capable- what I think OT has over DT is it’s ability as an FX processor(which, don’t get me wrong, it’s really fun to play around with and make the Fx portion of a track playable like an instrument-particularly with the scenes, but also with LFO)

But, DT sounds great with samples- will be able to “sample” via USB at some point which means a clip in your DAW can quickly be routed into the DT where it can be jammed on and recorded back into Ableton in an Arrangement.

That’s my logic and excitement for wanting a DT at some point- though OT mk 2 has a better USB port than the mk1 so MAYBE the OT really COULD be DTPro?

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Introducing Octatrack MKII
#4

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Introducing Octatrack MKII

#6

I have a feeling that in tandem with ableton, the digitakt will be more powerful than the octatrack. People here call it the ot lite or jr, but personally I don’t think it was designed with much of ot lite in mind. I picture the digitakt more of a studio device you build stuff with ableton, work stand alone when you want as well, and when you’re done building your sets, they can be loaded onto an octatrack for crazy live stuff.

I think it was designed to give you a hardware sampler for your daw and in tandem with analog heat or any other OB device you have a sound designer’s paradise. This is elektron’s attempt at the “hybrid” setup everyone else is doing. Akai has a long way to go but besides the crappy launch of thier new boxes they are moving in the right direction. NI is still only software but they are pretty solid for what they do, an auxiliary to ableton. Roland same thing those new boutiques although not perfect are game changers with how they can be integrated within a daw. Plus countless other brands doing exactly the same type of stuff in thier own way.

No matter what digitakt is a gateway drug for elektron. It’s cool and all but until OB is released I don’t think it doesn’t come nearly close to the internet hype it’s caused. It’s about as advanced as my 20 year old asr-10 but with a better sequencer, everything else I think the asr-10 is way better. Polyphony, sound in general, effects. Etc. Now with overbridge that flips the script. I’m not trying to knock the digitakt too much here either, I have one and like it but have a hard time fitting it in my workflow RIGHT NOW. Everything else I have is just better than it hardware wise, but I just wanted to point out how overbridge will change it exponentially.

Unless octatrack gets OB, which I doubt it will because it being a major selling point for digitakt, it’s about the same as any high end hardware samplers/ sequencers. So so sound, but all the other features make up for it. Plus if you know what your doing, you can really make it sound great. Just takes work. At the end of the day you would still need a interface to connect it ( go figure the digitakt is an interface).

The real question is your budget and how much your rely on ableton for arrangements.

If I were in your shoes, I think I would get a digitakt when ob comes. Spend the leftovers on a secondhand a4 and maybe an analog heat. If your workflow is based around ableton, I’d keep it that way.

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#7

Having swapped, bought and sold various hardware in the last 6 months I’ve settled with Push 2 and an Analog Four as my main setup now. I had a Digitakt, and now have an Octatrack and honestly unless you plan to perform solo with them I’d say the sampling capabilities of Push and Simpler are just as good if not better in places…

The A4 really comes to life when playing it from an external keyboard (or Push), the velocity response is amazing when used for nice poly chords etc. Use Live to take care of sampling/drums, multitrack record everything in via Overbridge. Plus A4s are getting so much cheaper now.

My $0.02

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#8

What’s an Ableton? :thinking: Octatrack is Able to do a Ton of stuff… :grin: Grab one, dont look back!
(or ignore my loyal otsmanship and hybridize a DT with ol Abes when OB hits the streets)
You can do without either, but guaranteed you’ll have more fun with at least one of em around…

Edit: Forgot about A4, that’ll do just fine… :smile_cat:

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#9

I use Ableton and have a Push 2. Recently been using the older drum machine of the Elektron gear that a friend loaned me called Machine Drum. I love it! The beauty is stand alone capability and it is more fun to use in live setting than to stair at computer screen and push controller. If Ableton made a stand alone version it would come close to the Octatrack.

For me, I work all day on computer and want to use a more stand alone setup with less pieces in live setting that can interface with the larger studio gear including my DAW software computers and larger synths so that is why I plan to move to Elektron gear for live rig.

#10

I’ve seen you hanging around these parts, we need to get you an Elektron stat! :smile_cat:
At least you got a loaner MD for now, should tide you over…
You can do everything with a computer, but working with hardware is more focused with less routes to get side tracked on your journey to a finished track. It’s like hardware keeps pushing you towards the trail that goes up the mountain while a computer keeps tempting you with senic detours…
Plus theres just something about physical hands on instruments, and midi controllers don’t seem to do it for me…
(computers are extremely useful though and I often take the scenic detours… :ecstatic:)

#11

Thank you very much for all your comments. To me it’s very helpful to read about your experiences. I’m quite sure I’ll get an analogfour at some point. Together with what I have plus an OT or DT would be perfect I guess.

Will think about OT or DT a bit more. As some of you do, I really like switching between different ways of approaching something similar. With the OP-1 it was a bit like that for me. Except some easy to approach tape tricks there’s not a lot that you cannot do with a DAW and some soft synths. But I really like using the OP-1, then record (or copy) to Live again and then back to the op-1. And of course I can take it anywhere (which is also something I like about OT/DT: very portable although no battery power). Deciding between OT and DT I see a plus in OB. Otherwise is there anything OT can’t do that DT can? To me it seems to make more sense to get a used OT MK I and have more possibilities than getting a DT…

#12

You might want to have a look at this thread, if you haven’t before

I have a Push2, A4 and OT.
The A4 is a great synth. Period. Would be a great addition to Push and ableton if you like the sound of it.
Push is great, I love the pads, I love the scale mode. Best thing for me ever to find melodies.
Sampling on the push is also cool. I think the time stretching with the different warp modes are far superior the OT’s timestretching. Slicing is also cool. And for midi sequencing you could achieve most things and more with the Push and midi effects, lfo’s etc. But I think the Octatrack is much more fun and inspirational for perfoming. The crossfader and scenes are genius. Realtime sampling, while keeping the sequencer running, using recorder trigs etc is unique I guess.

The digitakt is said to sound better. Also has better fx. Should be easier to learn. It has the controll all feature. It can sequence program changes, right? It has conditional trigs, but now we now that this will also come for the Octatrack

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#13

Great. Thanks for linking the other thread.

One thing I never got about the OT is how many samples you can play at the same time. It’s something that seems important to me in regard to work with it (for my way of working). I’m not thinking about very short one-shots but more about something like combining a beat (which is clear) with a 5 min loop playing (atmospheric field recording from the forest) with a 3 min loop playing (spoken word) and then triggering manually samples with a length from 2 seconds to 30 seconds (field recording of a bird, crackling leaves, very short piano sequence). Especially for the last layer I would think that I need an extra track for each of the samples if it’s not one sample that get’s sliced, no? I’m thinking of samples which shouldn’t be retriggered when the 64 steps sequence starts over but just run in an independent loop unless I stop them or retrigger them on my own. I read something about individual pattern length per track and the possibility to set it to “infinite” but not sure if that will make independent looping samples possible…

#14

The OT can play 8 samples at any given time, 7 if you use a master track for global fx.
You can use sample locks to play different samples than a tracks default on any step, but any new one will cut off the last one as it’s one track…
Slots mode is a way to have access to up to 128 samples with the trig keys which are heard through the selected track and can be live recorded to it.
There’s several options for long samples, one shot trigs that don’t retrig on a pattern cycle, track scale down to 1/8 speed, plays free tracks which are tracks that you launch independently, and manual triging, which launch can be quantized and sample set to loop…
And now, conditional trigs have a 1rst out of every 8 pattern cycles condition that can can extend tracks much further…
There’s options…

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#15

Nice, very useful summary :slight_smile:

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#16

Hi,
Just to chuck my 2 pence into the conversation, I would say that the Analog Heat has had the greatest impact on my Ableton setup.
I have a Machinedrum, Analog Four and a Digitakt and they have had a huge impact too; as mentioned above, working with hardware really does change the process of creating sound for the better. However, if I had to remove everything but one device: the Analog Heat would be the keeper.
I have Push 2 and it is rather redundant at the moment due to the recent discovery of the Elektron boxes, but over time I imagine that it, and Ableton, will come into play more again. But Heat make everything that comes out of Ableton sound incredible.
It was a bit of a hard decision to spend good money on it. As it isn’t a sound producer in its own right, it’s easy to perceive it as something of a luxury. But what it does to sounds is really worth the money.
My girlfriend, who is often the judge of the impact of things that appear in the music room, thought it a pointless purchase; after a few weeks, it became her favourite.
:grin:

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#17

I have octatrack and push 2
And imo they are not redundant at all. I come up with ideas in the octatrack, take them as far as I can in that alone.
Then once I start adding live, push is great for poly synth stuff, mixing adding effects etc.
Push is so much more than just a drum sampler thing!

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#18

Decided to go for an Analogfour first. :blush: Hope it was a good decision but got a MK1 for around 700 euros. Still want an Octatrack but for now I think I’m happy with sampling capabilities of push and Ableton and a new sound creating source seems more attractive to me…
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences!

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#19

I can tell you one thing with certainty. A analog four for 700 Euros IS a GOOD decision. :wink:

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